I buy my lottery tickets at the same 7-11 store for about a year now. I have never had a problem until tonight. But it was an extremely unusual occurrence. My usual ticket purchase, 5 numbers each, Powerball, Mega, Super, add up to $20 each time. I haven't bought tickets probably a couple months now. I always pay with a $20 dollar bill.

Apparently, this store, within the last two weeks, has had bad money passing through, so the clerks claim. So the clerks are now using some kind of money scanner, which they put the $20 bills through before they put the bill in their register.

The $20 bill that I used to purchase my tickets with did not go through whatever scanner they were using and clerk was like, its not going through and to give him another $20. I didn't have another $20, then he wanted the tickets back which I said no, these are lottery tickets, you don't give back lottery tickets once they come out of the machine, you could be giving away millions. Ironically, the ATM machine I got this $20 bill from, was from another 7-11 store, two days ago. The bill was a little worn like maybe it got a little wet, wrinkled in somebody's pocket but not to the point is was unreadable.

Sometimes when you put $1, $5 dollar bills into a quarter or change machine like at a laundry mat, the machine will reject the bill. I think that was the problem with the $20 I had. The other clerk came out of the back room and used his own money, out of his own wallet, 2 $10 dollar bills, to put into their cash register for the purchase. If there is a problem, I suggested they check all 7-11 store ATM's before loading money into these.

So what do they do with the $20 bill I gave them if its not going through their scanner? Very strange evening, now I hope I win cause I would have to go back to that store and they would win also

I didn't see the scanner they were using under the counter but I assume its something like this. There has been a ton of bank robberies in around Los Angeles the last year.

The five women and three men are suspected of belonging to two gangs, "51 Nothing But Trouble Gangster Crips" and "52nd Hoover Gangster Crips". The suspects allegedly used the counterfeit bills to buy merchandise and gift cards at major stores, including Nordstrom, Toys R Us and Target, and then returned the goods for cash refunds

Eight people were arrested Thursday in California in a probe of gang members suspected of shopping with counterfeit money at big box retailers and returning the goods for cash refunds.

The investigation began in December after a store in the upscale city of Seal Beach, California, reported receiving fake $20 bills. Since then, local police and federal secret service agents said similar bills have been traced to members of two violent Los Angeles gangs and were used in more than 4,200 transactions totaling more than $100,000 nationwide

They were still investigating where the phony bills were manufactured, he said.

Authorities from a series of California law enforcement agencies and the Secret Service carried out 15 search warrants in Los Angeles County and retrieved computers, gift cards, receipts, weapons and counterfeit bills.

The five women and three men are suspected of belonging to two gangs, "51 Nothing But Trouble Gangster Crips" and "52nd Hoover Gangster Crips". The suspects allegedly used the counterfeit bills to buy merchandise and gift cards at major stores, including Nordstrom, Toys R Us and Target, and then returned the goods for cash refunds

Eight people were arrested Thursday in California in a probe of gang members suspected of shopping with counterfeit money at big box retailers and returning the goods for cash refunds.

The investigation began in December after a store in the upscale city of Seal Beach, California, reported receiving fake $20 bills. Since then, local police and federal secret service agents said similar bills have been traced to members of two violent Los Angeles gangs and were used in more than 4,200 transactions totaling more than $100,000 nationwide

They were still investigating where the phony bills were manufactured, he said.

Authorities from a series of California law enforcement agencies and the Secret Service carried out 15 search warrants in Los Angeles County and retrieved computers, gift cards, receipts, weapons and counterfeit bills.

That's the oledest trick in the book. Damn, those LA ganstas are way behind.